Video

Touch (formerly PingChat!) Released version 3.1 update with sound and video sharing and also includes important performance and stability improvements. Update is now available today on iOS, Android and BlackBerry.

What is Touch?
Touch formerly PingChat is a mobile app that allows you to be intimately connected with those most important to you.

Jon (Touch Team), says:
“We believe that audio and video sharing will help bring your conversations to a whole new level. Now, you can easily and privately express yourself through text, emoticons, pictures, videos, sounds and voice clips. For those of you that have been following us since the days of PingChat! we know you will be excited by this announcement. When we initially introduced Touch, we made a decision to take our time to rebuild video and audio sharing up to the quality standard we strive for. We took that time and built an experience that is truly cross-platform and mobile. We appreciate and thank you for your patience as we worked to reintroduce these features.”

The new release provides users with even more ways to connect and communicate with their closest relationships, through video and audio messages and voice notes. Touch 3.1 can be downloaded at touch.com. Touch supports iOS devices (OS version 3.0+), as well as Android (1.6+) and Blackberry (5.0+).

However we did notice “Performing Migration” does take some time after opening the app.

Be sure to download the update directly from your app store, or by navigating to http://www.touch.com/download.

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April 1st. It’s that time of the year again when the internet is rife with odd news and pranks. As before, news sites like us end up with a healthy stream of tips throughout April Fools’ Day (thanks, by the way), so let us round up some of the best findings for your comedic appetite. Contenders include the usual suspects like Google and ThinkGeek, the former of which dominating the gigglesphere this year with some new “features.” We also have some interesting submissions from Hulu, a font company, and probably plenty more to come as the day progresses, so keep watching this space as we add new entries to this post. Right, let the fun commence after the break.

First up, we have several new features from Google, starting with Gmail Motion and Docs Motion which offer “intuitive, ergonomic” gesture control to replace your outdated keyboard-and-mouse combo. But if you’re more of a Google Voice person, then you might find the Voice-alyzer handy — it’s simply an anti-drunk calling or texting tool for those special nights out. Come on, we’ve all been there.

Also from Mountain View is a new job listing for a Google Autocompleter. That’s right, turns out every single search on Google is actively monitored by human staffers, who are able to provide instant suggestions for your incomplete entries. Have a look at what autocomplete veteran Michael Taylor has to say about his exciting duty.

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Rebecca Black’s “Friday” the much-maligned but still catchy pop music video that’s taken the web by storm, has passed into nothingness. The video was removed from YouTube by the original publisher (Black’s record label, Ark Music Factory) as of 4 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time.

Love it or hate it — and chances are, you hate it — Rebecca Black’s music video “Friday” had racked up an impressive 64 million YouTube views since its inauspicious debut last month. However, when it comes to sentiment, “Friday” was killing it, and by “it” we mean “any feelings of charity or kindness you may feel toward Ark and its teenie bopping popsters.” of course.

“Friday” had racked up around 1.189 million dislikes; Justin Bieber’s “Baby” its nearest competitor for the dubious honor of “most hated video” has only 1.162 million dislikes on YouTube.

But Bieber’s clip had more than 501 million views. When you do the math, that means Rebecca Black’s video was actively disliked by almost 1.88% of viewers who saw the video. “Baby” is disliked by a mere .23%.

We’ve written about Black’s first foray into Internet fame a few times, and not everything we’ve had to say has been nice. After all, the teen singer was given only the briefest radio play, and she reportedly didn’t even make that much money from the video, especially when one considers the amount of exposure and emotional pain that comes along with such an ordeal.

We’ll keep an eye on the video’s URL the clip may pop up again shortly. In the meantime, we’re reaching out to Ark for a statement on why the video was pulled in the first place.

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This week in Rebecca Black news, the 13-year-old’s debut single “Friday” went viral, landed Top 50 on the iTunes charts followed by her first TV appearance on Good Morning America and then her attempt to duet with Justin Bieber. So with all the hype surrounding Rebecca and “Friday” YouTube buffs had a blast impersonating the singer with numerous covers. Then came the release of what many thought to be Rebecca’s second song “Prom Night.”

But, Rebecca squashed the rumors on Twitter saying the ditty was not her reprisal from “Friday.”

Rather, it was another impostor trying to get in on the Rebecca Black action.

Rebecca did give her stamp of approval to this parody of her hit Friday, Tweeting, “Hah. Love this parody.”

She is working on a second single, but the only details she released, “We’re currently writing another song…it does not have to do with weekdays, or months, or numbers or colors. Throwin’ that out there.”

Are you ready for more Rebecca? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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Apple has just made its second-generation iPad official! It features a 1GHz dual-core A5 chip and, finally, cameras, both on the front and rear. The new CPU is said to be up to twice as fast, with graphics performance up to nine times better than on the original iPad, while power requirements have been kept the same. Battery life is, consequently, unaltered, with Apple promising 10 hours. Pricing, too, has been left unchanged, starting at $499 for a 16GB WiFi-only iPad 2 and stretching up to $829 for a WiFi + 3G SKU with 64GB of storage. The new tablet will come with an HDMI output capable of 1080p — which will set you back $39 for the requisite dongle, called an Apple Digital AV Adapter — but there will sadly be no rumblings of Thunderbolt connectivity here. What you will get is an enlarged speaker grille on the back, as expected, and the same 1024 x 768 resolution and IPS LCD screen technology as on the original iPad.

720p video recording at 30fps will be on tap from the rear-facing camera, which can also do a 5x digital zoom if you’re into that kind of thing, whereas the front-facing imager will record at a more modest VGA resolution, also at 30fps.

There’s a new cover for the device, which is best defined by Steve Jobs himself: “We designed the case right alongside the product. It’s not a case — it’s a cover.” Basically, it’s a magnetic flap that protects the front and automatically wakes and puts the device to sleep according to whether it’s open or closed. Guess we know what that proximity sensor was about now. These Smart Covers will cost $39 in plastic or $69 if you opt for leather.

The iPad 2 is 33 percent thinner than its predecessor, at a mind-melting 8.8mm, and a little lighter at just over 600g, while paintjob options have been expanded: you’ll get a choice between white and black. It’ll be available on both AT&T and Verizon, and all variants start shipping on March 11th. Apple Retail Stores will start sales at the unusual hour of 5PM, which will probably make online pre-orders the fastest way to get yours.

In terms of new software, Apple’s launching iOS 4.3 alongside the new iPad and bringing with it much improved Safari performance as well as FaceTime, Photo Booth, iMovie and GarageBand (the latter two costing $4.99 a piece) apps specifically for the newly camera-enriched iPad. Personal Hotspot capabilities are also arriving in the latest version of the OS, but they’ll be exclusive to the iPhone 4, so you won’t be able to share your 3G iPad’s connection. The minimum compatible version of iTunes for the new iPad 2 will be the freshly released 10.2.